Made for Independent Contractors
Set Rates and Terms That Protect Your Margin
Also useful for: people in Entrepreneurship, people in Freelancers
75 min
Advanced
Business & Entrepreneurship
Earn More
Comparing Financial Options
Set a workable hourly rate and fixed fee, then choose payment terms that cover costs, risk, and cash flow.
Create a free account to save your progress and use this Playbook.
Use this when
You're setting rates, pricing a substantial project, reviewing weak payment terms, or deciding whether a fixed fee will pay enough.
You'll need
- Service or project
- Annual owner pay target
- Annual overhead
- Tax and benefits reserve
- Annual billable hours
- Estimated project hours
- Direct project costs
- Project risk
- Scope confidence
- Client payment history
- Pricing preference
- Client and deal context
You'll get
- A minimum sustainable rate backed by visible math
- A target rate and firm rate floor
- A fixed-fee range with contingency and profit shown separately
- Best-case, expected, and overrun scenarios compared
- A deposit and milestone schedule tied to cash exposure
- Client-ready pricing and payment terms
By the end of this playbook
You will have:
- A minimum sustainable rate backed by visible math
- A target rate and firm rate floor
- A fixed-fee range with contingency and profit shown separately
- Best-case, expected, and overrun scenarios compared
- A deposit and milestone schedule tied to cash exposure
- Client-ready pricing and payment terms
Sample
This is sample data, not your prompt. Pro unlocks this higher-stakes Playbook. On Free Playbooks you can still copy the assembled prompt into any AI.
Sample input
A six-week website project is expected to take 120 hours and carry $1,800 in direct costs. The annual pay target is $90,000, annual overhead is $24,000, the reserve is 30 percent, and realistic billable capacity is 1,100 hours. Scope is partly defined, risk is high, and the new client wants a fixed fee with 20 percent upfront and net 45 payment.
Sample assembled prompt
Rate floor analysis: - Annual pay... A 20 percent deposit and net...